OUR Biden administration yesterday approved a plan for oil production from northern alaskaby name Willow Projectworth $8 billion to be taken over by the oil giant ConocoPhillips and will take place on coast of the Arctic Ocean. The plan in question was originally approved by the Trump administration in 2020 but was rejected by the court.

The Willow project, with a total duration of 30 years, will pump about 200,000 barrels of oil per day, which corresponds to almost 1.6% of annual production in the United States, and the environmental footprint is estimated at about 287 million tons of carbon dioxide and other substances. gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect, an amount equivalent to adding an additional two million gasoline-powered cars or 30 fossil fuel factories to the country.

For these reasons, voices against the plan inside and outside the US are many and growing. Democrat Al Gore, the country’s former vice president under Bill Clinton, called the plan “grossly irresponsible,” stressing that mining in the northern Alaska tundra “would endanger not only the ecosystem and the inhabitants, but the pollution it would produce, takes us too far.” away from the zero air pollution goals we have set for the future.” “The last thing we need now is to support the fossil fuel industry with a three-decade project,” he added.

For its part, Earthjustice, an American NGO with significant influence on environmental issues, said it would sue the mining plan. “We cannot sufficiently demonstrate the detrimental effects of President Biden’s decision,” the organization’s director said yesterday after the project was approved. “By allowing ConocoPhillips to continue this business, he and his administration have made it almost impossible to achieve their climate goals. We will live with the consequences of this choice for decades,” he added.

The Willow project will create 3,000 jobs, but environmental groups are protesting the pollution it will cause.

What do residents want?

On the other hand, Alaskans are divided on the issue. Aware of the environmental costs, many argue that the project will create up to 3,000 jobs to help develop the state, while others insist that the destruction of the ecosystem will spell the end for some communities that are still nomadic and found their own. hunting survival. like caribou.

However, Alaska Republican Senator Dan Sullivan fully supported the initiative, seeing it as a great opportunity for economic development. “This is exactly the kind of plan that Biden and his team should support as it combines the lowest carbon footprint of any plan of its kind in the world and helps local residents like nothing else,” Sullivan said in his Senate speech. .

Democrats disagree

President Biden’s choice to approve a 30-year mining plan is also causing significant controversy in his own party circles. About 20 Democratic lawmakers, in a letter signed Sunday, asked the president not to approve the Willow Project, saying it would “seriously jeopardize the progress made by the United States on environmental issues.” “If you approve the northern Alaska mining plan, you will be at odds with the historic changes the administration has made in terms of environmental and climate justice,” the letter said, and in a Feb. 1 statement, the Department of the Interior said it had ” serious concerns” about the project.